


Day 3: What is Christmas?

by Rellwen



Series: Advent Challenge 2015 [3]
Category: Transformers - All Media Types, Transformers: Prime
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-12-04
Updated: 2015-12-04
Packaged: 2018-05-04 23:16:13
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,366
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5352038
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Rellwen/pseuds/Rellwen
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Knock Out goes for a drive. When he finds himself ambushed by the universe's tiniest wrecker, the day takes and unexpectedly educational turn as Miko decides to teach the decepticon about the Christmas spirit.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Day 3: What is Christmas?

**Author's Note:**

> Well i'm late for day 3 but here it is!
> 
> I just want to throw it out there that I'm using TFA time units more or less. 
> 
> This prompt was evil! Evil I tell you! The original prompt was "Christmas is for children". I immediately thought, "How am I even going to get children in a decepticon fic?" Well the obvious answer was Miko, but I totally went a different direction than I originally wanted to. So I decided to switch up the title just a bit so it fit the actual story better.
> 
> Anyway!  
> I hope you all enjoy!

Now Knock Out may not be the bravest, cleverest, or even fastest decepticon (if you counted the flyers) but one thing that could be said about him was that he was determined. It didn’t matter if it was a race or a repair, when Knock Out decided to do something he never failed to give it everything he had. 

As such, when he decided to do Christmas, he delved into the datapad, consuming the information. After he finished that, he performed additional searches on the local information network. - ‘Internet’ he reminded himself. - The deluge of information was equal parts fascinating and confusing. How could one holiday have so many different interpretations? 

Knock Out was startled from his reading when a large servo dropped onto one sculpted shoulder plate. Easily recognising the touch he reclined in his chair slipping a casual smirk into place. He looked up to meet the optics of his hulking assistant.

The face he was met with did not seem impressed. “Did you get any recharge at all?”the blue mech questioned.

A flash of confusion flitted across the smaller mech’s face. A quick check of his internal chronometer revealed there was perhaps four or five klicks until the beginning of day shift. He’d spent the whole night cycle reading. A groan escaped his vocaliser.

Breakdown exvented in amusement, “Come on, then” The servo currently caressing tiny circles into his partner’s shoulders switched grips gently tugging him up onto his feet.

Knock Out stood but didn’t immediately follow. He made sure everything was shut down properly and in the correct place on the desk top. The medic may be chaotic and impulsive in many aspects of his life but his desk was kept meticulously organised. Once he finished he turned back to the blue mech who was waiting patiently for him. He twirled his hand in a flashy gesture towards the door, “After you.”

It was a relatively short walk later Knock Out found himself seated at a corner table peering curiously at a group of eradicons and their choices in festive wear. Now that he was -at least mostly- convinced there was no diabolical mind control plot in play they seemed more intriguing than abhorrent.

A small metallic clink announced the arrival of a standard energon ration being set on the table. 

Knock Out pulled it towards himself and made to take a sip. “Aren’t you going to stay?” He questioned when his assistant made no move to sit.

Said assistant smiled in response. “Nah, you take the day. Drink your energon. Get some recharge. I’ll cover the medbay.”

If it had been any other time Knock Out would have scoffed. One mech couldn’t man the medbay for the entire nemesis. The datawork alone would be a disaster. But it wasn’t any other time. And there had been an almost suspiciously low number of Autobot related incidents recently. The medbay was all but empty. Knock Out had every confidence that his assistant could handle himself for half a cycle. So instead he nodded and sipped from his cube.

Breakdown gave a tiny wave as he headed off, “Take care, doc” he called over his shoulder.

The red medic took his time with the cube. Slowly sipping at his energon and pondering what to do with his newfound free time. Of course he could actually recharge but where was the fun in that?

\---

A megacycle and several miles later found Knock Out idling in a car park outside of a building that almost looked big enough for an average frame bot to walk around in. The place was absolutely swarming with humans. Everywhere was swarming with humans. Knock Out had never seen so many in one place before. 

People watching was a guilty pleasure of his. Tiny and squishy as they may be, Humans were fascinating to watch. So many of their customs were so familiar, so similar to cybertronian interactions. Then one of them would come out with some obscure human thing that would surprise Knock Out.

Like for example walking straight up to him and climbing in the driver’s seat.

For a nanoklik Knock Out thought he was being stolen. Before he could react and throw the criminal out of his interior he was interupted.

“Hey deceptifreak.” A familiar voice called, far too loud for the close proximity.

If he had optics he would have rolled them, “Get out of me.”

“No way! It’s cold out there.” Miko made a show of nestling deeper into her jacket, “What’re you doin here ‘con? Are you here to steal stuff? You better not be doing anything creepy. I’ll call bulk and we’ll kick you tailpipe!”

Knock Out gave a short harsh exvent. “I was just sitting here, minding my own business.” He drawled, “What exactly are you doing?” 

“Duh, I’m christmas shopping.” She said it like it was the most obvious thing ever.

Knock Out was quiet for a moment considering the question before he asked it, “What’s christmas shopping?”

Miko looked absolutely dumfounded, “How do you not know that?”

“Oh I’m sorry I don’t know the semantics of your weird earth holiday.” The aston martin snapped, “Can you tell me how cybertronians celebrate their creation date?”

“Uhhmm...with cake?”

“What’s cake?”

“Seriously?”

Knock Out purposely blew a jet of chilly air from outside into the front seat.

“Ah, ok ok jeez turn off the winter.” The girl scrabbled her hands over the vents trying to suppress the air flow. There was a click and the vents returned to a low hum of warm air. Slowly she relaxed back into the chair as if expecting another outburst, “So..You really don’t know christmas?”

“Of course I do!” Knock Out snapped, “well...a bit.” 

“Well Christmas is AWESOME!” Miko gestured wildly and bounced in place, “There’s presents, and snowball fights, and junk food, and parties, and music!” She cut herself off to air guitar and hum out a tune Knock Out recognised just barely. 

As amusing as her antics were, Knockout felt like he was missing something obvious. That frustrated him, “Why would you fight ‘snow balls’? Are they vicious?”

The tiny human had the audacity to laugh at him! Rude little thing. “You fight with the snow balls. Like you throw them at people.” She explained.

Oooohhh. Yeah that made sense. 

“Hey, come on I’ll show you.” She turned around in the seat hand questing for the seat belt.

“A snowball fight?” Knock Out asked skepticism written clearly in his voice.

“Christmas!”

The decepticon followed her directions as she led him away from the shopping center. The whole time he wondered exactly why he was driving around with the autobot’s most volatile human pet in tow. He reasured himself that if anything did happen - anything big and green and smashy  
perhaps- he could make his escape via groundbridge quickly. He pulled into their destination not  
far away. 

A park.

There were kids of many sizes everywhere. They played on the equipment and ran around the surrounding area. Laughing and yelling.

Miko quickly hopped out of the car. She circled to the front and jumped up on the hood.

“Hey! Watch the paint.” He very nearly flung her off when she swatted him.

“Shush. Cars don’t talk.” 

‘And little brats don’t drive sports cars’ He grumped silently

The girl waved at a small group of kids that were relatively close by. They waved back and proceeded to run right up to the front of the car all wide smiles and excited giggles, “Merry Christmas!” One of them greeted

“Merry Christmas!” She responded while rumaging through her pockets. She pulled out a hand full of small, individually wrapped, long, hooked confections which she then offered to the other kids, “Here want some candy canes?” 

There was a round of excited agreement and thank yous as she handed the candies out to the younger kids. “So what do you guys want for christmas?” She asked conversationally

“OOOH! I want this awesome action figure I saw on tv!” On kid started nearly vibrating in his excitement. He went into grand detail about how just how ‘awesome’ the toy was with big gestures and loud sound effects.

The other kids took turns talking about their favorite prospective toys. “Gifts are the best part of christmas!” a young girl had exclaimed

“No way!” A boy to her left snorted, “I get to go up to my cabin for christmas and my whole family comes! The best part is getting to go tobogganing with them!”

“Wow that sounds fun!” A different girl marveled, “I’ve never been tobogganing before.”

“I like not going to school.” someone else piped up.  
“I like the trees!” yet another child chipped in.

“My mom says the best part of christmas is the eggnog but I don’t get to have any.”

Miko snickered as the kids started to disperse this time talking about their favourite parts of christmas and munching on their candy canes. 

“I don’t celebrate christmas.” a small voice said from the left

Miko looked over to see the small boy, barely seven at best. She slid off the hood and crouched down to eye level, “Why not?” She asked sweetly

The boy puffed up and announced with pride, “We’re Jewish.” 

After a few seconds of conseration Miko cracked a huge smile, “That’s awesome little man! You know what that means?”

The little boy shook his head tentatively.

Miko leaned in a whispered conspiratorially, “You get extra special candy.” and handed him a round mint of the same coloration as the candy canes. 

He took it and quickly popped it in his mouth like he was scared someone would take it from him.

“Happy holidays!” She beamed and the kid smiled back before running to join the others on the playground. 

Miko rested a hand on Knock Out’s door getting ready to leave when a voice stopped her.

It was an adult female, by the looks of her she seemed to be the boy’s mother. “I may not celebrate it but my favorite part of christmas Is people like you.” She said patting Miko on the shoulder.

The girl giggled, “Thank you mam! Happy holidays.”

“Happy Holidays.” She responded wandering off closer to the play set.

Miko tucked her hands in her pockets, “Hey ‘con can you drive me back?”

Knock Out was genuinely surprised by the question. He had assumed the little spitfire would just expect it of him. He popped a door open in agreement. He was pondering what he’d seen. Up close interaction was so much different than online research. Seeing the big dumb smiles on those kids faces reminded him of simpler times. They reminded him of Breakdown when he was proud of something. And if his offlined his optics he could pretend they were sparklings, playing and they were all back on Cybertron. No war for them to fear and not a care in the world. It warmed his spark.

He thought that maybe, just maybe, he understood why christmas meant so much to these people.

“Hey, are we going?” Miko prompted knocking on his dashboard. “Helloooo, Earth to ‘con- wah!” she yelped as she crashed backwards when he dropped the seat abruptly into full recline.

Without a word he revved once before pulling out of the parking lot, mindful of the barely predictable human children. 

“So what’d ya think?” Miko asked

“I think if all you were going to do was bribe protoforms with sweets you could have just told me.”

The girl huffed and kicked at the underside of the dashboard, “You’re hopeless.”

“Hey, hey! Watch the scuff marks!” he snapped. He vented a sigh, puffing warm air into the cabin, “I think that maybe the point of your holiday is to do things for other people. To make them happy, right?’

Miko nodded, “Yeah there’s nothing better than knowing you got someone the perfect gift and they loved it!” she scooted forward in her seat, “This calls for some tunes!”

Knock Out actually yelped when she grabbed the volume nob and started pushing buttons on his console, “Do you mind?!” 

She pulled away looking sheepish, “Sorry, can you uhh..” she gestured vaguely toward the radio.

You could hear the optic roll in his voice when he responded, “Fine, go ahead.”

This time she slowly set her hand on the controls and gently selected her station. When she clicked the volume on a wall of sound blasted out of the speakers. “Woah! You’ve got a kick ass sound system!” She marveled

The car scoffed, “Are you suggesting I could ever be less than top of the line?”

She laughed and jammed along to the heavy unrelenting guitar and raging vocals.

Soon enough they pulled back up to the mall. Knock Out drove up to the doors and pulled over switching on his hazards. “Last stop, everybody out”

Miko crawled over the center and hopped out the passenger door. “Thanks for the ride.” She chimed, “But I mean it about the breaking stuff thing. Any decepticreepy stuff and I will beat your aft.” The threat would have been funny from anything else that tiny. Anything else. 

“Sir, yes sir.” he retorted

“I’m not a christian.” Miko told him, “I don’t really celebrate christmas. Not the baby jesus kind anyway.”

The confusion was palpable, “And why do I need to know that?”

“I celebrate everyone being happy and nice to each other.” She explained, “Peace on earth and goodwill towards men, or whatever, yeah? Anyone can cheer to that.”

Her choice in words was a little strange but Knock Out thought he understood what she meant. He wasn’t really sure how to respond so he just pulled his door closed, “You’re letting the cold air in.”

She laughed, “Now you sound like Ratchet!”

“Hey!” He was nothing like that old crankshaft! He pulled away from the curb in a huff peeling out of the parking lot.

Miko waved cheerfully before skipping into the mall.

Knock Out drove for a while, seeking a private enough location to call a ground bridge. He pondered the joyful faces of the human children and everything the one called Miko had shared with him. 


End file.
